1. No quality depth at CB when Springs got hurt
2. Arch was a major bust

GW has had successful defenses in the past with little or no pass rush from the front 4. As long as the secondary holds up he can generate rush from his creative blitz packages. His hands were tied last year with oursecondary play.

That is why we got Smoot in FA and draft Landry here....they figure if he did it once he can do it again.

Under this line of thinking there is no way we trade Springs now.

i don't like this reasoning (I think the game is won in the trenches) but I am not completely unhappy with this pick....we will see how it works out.
Plus they probably are thinking they can get a situational pass rush DE in the 5th and rotate him in on 3rd and longs.

Well it's good that he can run fast, he's going to have to as opposing QBs are going to continue to have all day to throw to targets deep down field.

But then again, if the secondary has improved enough to where the QB has nobody to throw to, then you'll see more coverage sacks. I'd love for us to get a good DE or two, but this is probably the best thing the Redskins had to work with.

Does anyone worry that we replaced an in-the-box safety (Arch) with an in-the-box safety (Landry)? Not comparing them really but wondering how Grilliams intends to tweak the defense to play to Landry's strength--a strength that Grilliams could not harness with Arch...

I really don't like this pick. Don't get me wrong, Landry is a great athlete, but we REALLY needed D Line help. How can anyone think that our line is even average. We have OLD LB's minus MacIntosh, so the line will be in trouble. We have no second or 3rd round picks to get a possibly decent DE, or DL...now what?

Does anyone worry that we replaced an in-the-box safety (Arch) with an in-the-box safety (Landry)? Not comparing them really but wondering how Grilliams intends to tweak the defense to play to Landry's strength--a strength that Grilliams could not harness with Arch...

I do!!!! I do think the coaches will be more inclined to MAKE this work, so in that respect, we have one of the best secondaries in the league...but again...our D LINE might be THE worst in all of football.

I think this could turn out to be *THE* major debate of Redskins fans of this decade. Which is more important to our defense, D-Line or Backfield? There's pretty logical arguments behind both, and I think you can find examples where both can be proved right and wrong. Now we bite our nails for several months and hope GGrilliamsss made the right choice.

LaRon Landry - great choice! The best available player on the board. And he fills a position of need at the same time. Best of both worlds.

We don't have a crying need a defensive lineman in my view. Here's Philip Daniels on why our sack totals were low (when we ran three man lines to protect the secondary) and why they were high (when we rushed four man lines):

Kiper says Landry is the best defensive player on the board. I don't necessarily hate the pick, Landry should help in run support and with safety blitzes, but I'm obviously left wondering what they're going to do about the d-line.

Trade? Free agent? June 1 cut?

Or they believe they have the players they need already. The theme of that controversial ESPN article last year was that Williams believes that his scheme will work with nearly any group of players. To me, this pick indicates he believes the Redskins problems against the run were caused by his having to adjust the scheme to compensate for poor secondary play. With better LBers and Landry doing what they though Arch would do, he thinks the existing group is adequate. Or, they just didn't think the available DLs represented value and they had no trading partners. That's all I can come up with. Perhaps they will make a deal for more picks later today. I can't believe we are looking at the following as our starting defensive line:

But then again, if the secondary has improved enough to where the QB has nobody to throw to, then you'll see more coverage sacks. I'd love for us to get a good DE or two, but this is probably the best thing the Redskins had to work with.

We definately improved the secondary, but no one in it is a top-notch cover guy that we can rely on. Springs is our best cover man and he's aging and injured way too often. Moreover, NO corner of safety is covering their man (assuming we're talking about man coverage) for more than a few seconds. I don't know, the improved secondary helps, I just would have liked to have seen us draft Okoye or trade down (if possible) to nab a DE.

True, we definitely need to address our D-line but I have confident in Gregg, he knows what to do.. Now our CBs are healthy, which means we can bring pressure by blitzing more, especially with Taylor and Landry (whom are designed to blitz).. I don't think we would have much of problems like last year..